This invention relates to optical disc accommodating cases for accommodating a DVD, a musical compact disc or such an optical disc as a computer CD-ROM and, more particularly, to optical disc accommodating cases, which are contrived so as to permit quick and smooth accommodation or removal of an optical disc, permit reliable accommodation of an optical disc without causing contamination or damage to the disc, and permit automation of loading of an optical disc during an assembling step.
A prior art optical disc accommodating case for accommodating an optical disc comprises a disc holder for holding the optical disc with a central hole thereof engaged with a boss of the disc holder, a base member for engaging with the disc holder, and a lid hinged to one side of the base member. This optical disc accommodating case is simple in construction and is thus extensively used for accommodating musical compact discs and computer CD-ROMs to be sold. Also, a case for accommodating a DVD has an integral structure, in which a holder having a boss and a lid capable of being opened and closed are hinged together.
In the meantime, recent multi-functional high quality recording media such as DVDs require players and discs to have higher dimensional accuracy than conventional compact discs. However, in the prior art optical disc accommodating case for protecting the optical disc, the boss may touch and cause damage, even if slightly, to an inner periphery of the central hole of the disc when the disc is fitted on and removed from the boss of the disc holder. When the inner periphery of the central hole of the optical disc is damaged even slightly, a clearance is generated between the damaged inner periphery and a spindle for rotating the optical disc, resulting in eccentric rotation of the disc or tilting thereof from an intrinsic plane of rotation. This poses a fatal problem in that it may result in imperfect reading or writing of data from or on the disc.
In addition, in the prior art optical disc the optical disc is accommodated in close contact with a disc holder surface. Therefore, the optical disc is hardly brought to a floating state by pushing, even with a great force, the boss of the disc holder which has a spring property for taking hold of and removing the disc. Therefore, inferior manipulation property in connection with removal and accommodation of the optical disc is inevitable.
Furthermore, when removing an optical disc, a recording area thereof, of which touching should be avoided as much as possible, is frequently touched by fingers, resulting in generation of scars and scratches or contamination.
The inventor earlier proposed, in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-306343 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-136889, an optical disc accommodating case, which permits an accommodated optical disc to be very readily removed without causing scars and scratches or contamination of a recording portion of the disc, as well as permitting removal and accommodation of the disc without causing damage to the very important central hole of the disc.
This prior art optical disc accommodating case is excellent in that it can be conveniently used by a user and is free from possibility of scars and scratches to an optical disc. However, this optical disc accommodating case has a problem with regard to automatic loading of an optical disc thereinto. With musical compact discs or the like, an operation sequence from accommodating an optical disc to packaging is fully automated. More specifically, for loading an optical disc in a case, a disc held by a robot is lowered directly downwardly to bring its central hole into engagement with a boss of an optical disc accommodating case. With the above optical disc accommodating case proposed by the inventor, a lock piece for preventing detachment of the optical disc interferes with loading, thereby making it impossible to load the disc.
The invention accordingly has an object of providing an optical disc accommodating case, which permits quick and smooth accommodation and removal of an optical disc, permits reliable accommodation of the disc without causing scars and scratches or contamination, and can cope with an assembling operation in which the optical disc is loaded into the case via automatic operation by a robot.